My folks weren’t really baseball fans, but they both grew up in Detroit, and the bandwagony, city-coming-together effect of the World Series champion Tigers of 1968 rubbed off on them enough to where players on that team were well-known names to me even before I really got my brain around baseball as a kid. As late as the early 80s, if my parents needed to reference a good baseball player for some reason, they’d mention one of those guys because those are the names they remembered.

Jim Northrup was one of the names that came up often. Northrup died yesterday at the age of 71 after several years of declining health.

Why did Northrup’s name stick out to non-baseball fans? The World Series heroics, most definitely. Northrup hit a grand slam in the blowout Game Six, which put it in everyone’s minds that, hey, maybe the Cardinals weren’t invincible after all. In Game Seven he came up even bigger, though: a triple to center field off Bob Gibson with two on to break up a scoreless tie in the top of the seventh. Curt Flood gets a lot of crap for making a bad play on that ball, but many believe that Flood wouldn’t have gotten to it with a good break anyway. Either way, it was the biggest moment Northrup would ever have on a baseball field.

But not the only big moment. Earlier in 1968 he became something of a grand slam artist, hitting four in the regular season. Two of them came in consecutive at bats in a game against the Indians (Northrup was the first ever to do that). Five days later he hit another against the White Sox. Coming in the deadest offensive year since the Dead Ball Era, those were some serious fireworks.

Overall, though, Northrup’s calling card was less about heroics and more about solid production and versatility. For a good eight years in the late 60s and early 70s, Northrup was a dependable presence in the Tiger outfield, playing all three positions.

Northrup’s career wound down as Billy Martin took over the Tigers. The two of them never saw eye-to-eye, and if you believe what every single person who has ever spoken about Billy Martin has said, that personal disagreement between the two of them probably speaks pretty well of Jim Northrup’s character and demeanor.

Following short stints in Montreal and Baltimore, Northrup retired following the 1975 season. Over 12 major league seasons he hit .267/.333/.429 with 153 homers and 610 RBI.

Blash, 28, was acquired by the Yankees from the Padres back in December in the Chase Headley trade. In trading Blash to the Angels, the Yankees were able to free up a spot on the 40-man roster for Brandon Drury, the infielder they acquired as part of a three-team trade with the Diamondbacks and Rays on Tuesday.

Over parts of two seasons in the majors, Blash has hit an underwhelming .200/.323/.336 in 279 plate appearances. He will try to play his way into a bench role for the Angels this spring.